IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/devchg/v54y2023i4p691-713.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainable Development Frontiers: Is ‘Sustainable’ Cocoa Delivering Development and Reducing Deforestation?

Author

Listed:
  • Will Lock
  • Anthony Alexander

Abstract

Forest frontiers are important areas for sustainable development as they combine the need to halt deforestation with the challenges of rural poverty. In the region of San Martín, Peru, the ‘Production, Protection and Inclusion’ model combines narratives of conservation, economic development and social inclusion in what can be defined as a ‘sustainable development frontier’. This article asks how such sustainable development frontiers change social, economic and ecological outcomes in the localities where they are found. The authors examine the reality of sustainable cocoa production linked to conservation and development goals, as promoted by government bodies, international agencies, cooperatives and chocolate brands in Peru, and show how, paradoxically, sustainability goals intensify production and attract smallholders into forest frontier areas. In doing so, the boom in demand for sustainable commodities has inadvertently created conditions encouraging further colonization of forested areas leading to a continuing rise in deforestation, ecological degradation and economic instability. Narratives of sustainable development can thus reinforce commodity intensification, as they obscure alternative approaches and reproduce traditional frontier dynamics.

Suggested Citation

  • Will Lock & Anthony Alexander, 2023. "Sustainable Development Frontiers: Is ‘Sustainable’ Cocoa Delivering Development and Reducing Deforestation?," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 54(4), pages 691-713, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:54:y:2023:i:4:p:691-713
    DOI: 10.1111/dech.12781
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12781
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/dech.12781?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Angus Lyall & Elizabeth Havice, 2019. "The Politics of Development Metrics and Measurement: Impact Evaluations in Fairtrade‐certified Plantation Agriculture," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 50(6), pages 1531-1553, November.
    2. Beckert, Sven & Bosma, Ulbe & Schneider, Mindi & Vanhaute, Eric, 2021. "Commodity frontiers and the transformation of the global countryside: a research agenda," Journal of Global History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(3), pages 435-450, November.
    3. David Levy & Juliane Reinecke & Stephan Manning, 2016. "The Political Dynamics of Sustainable Coffee: Contested Value Regimes and the Transformation of Sustainability," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 364-401, May.
    4. Rasmussen, Mattias Borg & Lund, Christian, 2018. "Reconfiguring Frontier Spaces: The territorialization of resource control," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 388-399.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chiarella, Cristina & Rufin, Philippe & Abeygunawardane, Dilini & Bey, Adia & Lisboa, Sá Nogueira & Zavale, Helder & Meyfroidt, Patrick, 2024. "Impacts of large-scale forestry investments on neighboring small-scale agriculture in northern Mozambique," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    2. David Monciardini & Guido Conaldi, 2019. "The European regulation of corporate social responsibility: The role of beneficiaries' intermediaries," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(2), pages 240-259, June.
    3. Mariska JM Bottema & Simon R Bush & Peter Oosterveer, 2021. "Territories of state-led aquaculture risk management: Thailand’s Plang Yai program," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(6), pages 1231-1251, September.
    4. Nikita Sud, 2020. "The Unfixed State of Unfixed Land," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 51(5), pages 1175-1198, September.
    5. Matthew Gandy, 2023. "Zoonotic urbanisation: multispecies urbanism and the rescaling of urban epidemiology," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(13), pages 2529-2549, October.
    6. Janina Grabs & Graeme Auld & Benjamin Cashore, 2021. "Private regulation, public policy, and the perils of adverse ontological selection," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(4), pages 1183-1208, October.
    7. Glasbergen, Pieter, 2018. "Smallholders do not Eat Certificates," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 243-252.
    8. Richey, Lisa Ann & Ponte, Stefano, 2021. "Brand Aid and coffee value chain development interventions: Is Starbucks working aid out of business?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    9. Eduardo Jimenez‐Moro & Panagiotis Piperopoulos & Mario Kafouros & Alan Au Kai Ming, 2023. "Innovation dynamics and club convergence in innovation activity in China: A temporal perspective," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 102(4), pages 791-816, August.
    10. Lisa Alvarado, 2019. "Institutional Change on a Conservationist Frontier: Local Responses to a Grabbing Process in the Name of Environmental Protection," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-17, November.
    11. Christopher Wright & Daniel Nyberg, 2022. "The Roles of Celebrities in Public Disputes: Climate Change and the Great Barrier Reef," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(7), pages 1788-1816, November.
    12. Imbrogiano, Jean-Pierre & Steiner, Bodo & Mori Junior, Renzo & Sturman, Kathryn, 2023. "What enables metals ‘being’ ‘responsible’? An exploratory study on the enabling of organizational identity claims through a new sustainability standard," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    13. Johanna Järvelä, 2023. "The Mine or the Mire? Mobilising Place in Natural Resource Struggles," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 187(2), pages 237-254, October.
    14. Jérôme Sgard, 2023. "Imperial Politics, Open Markets and Private Ordering: The Global Grain Trade (1875-1914)," Working Papers hal-04081417, HAL.
    15. Thomas Dietz & Janina Grabs & Andrea Estrella Chong, 2021. "Mainstreamed voluntary sustainability standards and their effectiveness: Evidence from the Honduran coffee sector," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(2), pages 333-355, April.
    16. Vuola, Marketta, 2022. "The intersections of mining and neoliberal conservation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    17. Thaler, Gregory M. & Viana, Cecilia & Toni, Fabiano, 2019. "From frontier governance to governance frontier: The political geography of Brazil’s Amazon transition," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 59-72.
    18. Piva da Silva, Mariana & Fraser, James A. & Parry, Luke, 2022. "From ‘prison’ to ‘paradise’? Seeking freedom at the rainforest frontier through urban–rural migration," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    19. Nicholas Pope, 2023. "Militias going rogue: Social dilemmas and coercive brokerage in Rio de Janeiro's urban frontier," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(3), pages 478-490, April.
    20. Anna-Lena Maier, 2021. "Political corporate social responsibility in authoritarian contexts," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(4), pages 476-495, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:54:y:2023:i:4:p:691-713. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0012-155X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.